Dr. Edwin Catmull (born March 31, 1945 in West Virginia) was a vice president of the Computer Division of Lucasfilm Ltd. He is a computer scientist who contributed to many important developments in computer graphics.
In 1986, he founded Pixar with Alvy Ray Smith. At Pixar, Catmull was a key developer of the RenderMan rendering system used in films such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo.
In 1993, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presented Catmull with his first Academy Award "for the development of PhotoRealistic RenderMan software which produces images used in motion pictures from 3D computer descriptions of shape and appearance." Again in 1996, he received an Academy Award "for pioneering inventions in Digital Image Compositing". Finally, in 2001, he received an Oscar "for significant advancements to the field of motion picture rendering as exemplified in Pixar's RenderMan."
Biography[]
In 1979, Edwin Catmull went to work for George Lucas at Lucasfilm Ltd.. It was at there that he helped develop digital image compositing technology used to combine multiple images in a convincing way.
Sources[]
This Week! in Star Wars Marvel Star Wars: Revelations Reveal, Inspiring ILM Legends, and More! on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)- This Week! in Star Wars Rogue One Is Back, The Rebel Spirit Of ILM, And More! on the official Star Wars YouTube channel (backup link)
External links[]
Edwin Catmull on Wikipedia
Edwin Catmull at the Internet Movie Database- Robert L. Cook, Loren Carpenter, and Edwin Catmull. "The Reyes image rendering architecture." Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH '87 Proceedings), pp. 95–102.
